Conventionally, a double deck elevator is made into two stories by vertically superimposing car chambers, as, for example, shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. A double deck elevator has the merits of the transport capacity being large since there are two car chambers at the top and bottom, and being able to economize on the area occupied in the building.
In FIG. 8, two car chambers (102) and (103) are vertically superimposed in one car frame (101) and this car frame (101) is moved vertically by a hoist (not shown in the figure) via a rope. Lower car chamber (103) is formed to move along car frame (101) and is provided with pantograph (104), oil pressure jack (105), oil pressure unit (106), etc., as shown in FIG. 9.
The floor height (space between the floors) of all floors in a building installed with an elevator is not always fixed and may differ depending on the floor. On a particular floor, the floor height differs, with lower car chamber (103) being moved by pressure feeding an operation fluid to oil pressure jack (105) from oil pressure unit (106) so that the space between car chambers (102) and (103) is coordinated with said floor height.
However, in said conventional double deck elevator, one car chamber (102) is not moved, with only the other car chamber (103) being moved in order to match the spacing between vertical two-story car chambers (102) and (103) with the floors of different floor heights, so there was a problem of not being able to quickly execute the adjustment in the spacing between the car chambers (102) and (103).
Also, in order to move the lower car chamber (103), it was necessary to lift the total weight which combined the weight of car chamber (103) and the weight of the passengers riding in this car chamber (103), with oil pressure unit (106). Consequently, oil pressure unit (106) with a great drive force was necessary, so there was a problem of the cost of oil pressure unit (106) as the driving means becoming high. In addition, the overall weight of the car, including car frame (101) and car chambers (102) and (103), became heavy due to the large oil pressure unit (106), so there was the problem of the running cost of the elevator also becoming high.
The present invention aims to make it possible to quickly execute the adjustment in the spacing between the upper and lower car chambers. Also, the aim is to achieve reduction in the cost of the driving means that executes adjustment of said spacing and to reduce the running cost of the elevator.